More Observations on INternet Radio

From: Martin McCormick <martin dc cis okstate edu>

To: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list redhat com>

Subject: More Observations on INternet Radio

Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 14:01:06 -0500

I understand why javascript is used in some INternet radio
sites. A person at work was listening to something called
clintoncountyradio.com which has a nice mix of sixties-seventies
oldies and no screaming commercials. I wanted to listen to it but I
can see that it and other sites like it are going to be a problem if
one isn't running a scripting browser like either Internet Explorer or
firefox and others.
I dug in to the clintoncounty web site and discovered that the
audio feed comes from live365.com. By dumping the source of the web
page related to the program I wanted to listen to, I found an
interesting process going on. This is an Internet radio station, not
just an audio feed of a radio station. They display the title and
artist of the song currently playing and the remaining playing time.
I got as far as the playlist url and discovered that it is not
apparent where the audio stream comes from.
The cascading style sheet loads a bunch of variables in to a
display and also connects your sound player with the audio feed.
If anybody wants to play with this, try
lynx -source http://www.live365.com/pls/front?handler=playlist\&cmd=view\&amp;
handle=radioccl\&noBranding=1\&noBuyButtons=1\&site=live365\&
css=/scp/live365/local.css
Actually, all that needs to be on one line. Your line will be
162 characters long if you want to put it in a script. I put the
backslashes in front of the & signs so that it will script and save
your fingers some work.
If you put that long line in to an executable file such as a
very tiny shell script, you can easily run it and direct the output to
a file. That file will have about 232 lines in it and you can compare
the file right now to an older copy of the file a short time ago.
The top 72 lines appear to not change much but the time stamps and
song information are on lines 73 and above.
I did happen to hit it once between songs and all those fields
were blank.
I used the links or l i n k s browser for those who are
listening to this to get past as much of the javascript as I could.
When I selected the link to listen, links didn't exactly freeze, but
it got confused and displayed no links. I saved that link in the
bookmarks file and retrieved it so as to use lynx or l y n x to
dismantle the source and get to the point where I did.
I have griped to no end about all the nasty things javascript
has done to anybody who isn't in on the secret, so to speak, but I
must admit that this is the first application that makes some sense.
I still wonder if one could construct the right kind of url that would
grab the streaming audio minus the display.
Well, back to more experimentation.
Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group